9:49am, Nov 19, 2021: Convoy of RCMP advancing up service road entrance at 63km and 2 helicopters confirmed dropping teams behind the blockades, attempting to surround the Coyote Camp. #AllOutForWedzinKwa#wetsuweten
Here is the latest news about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raid on the Wet’suwet’en territories.
Our ancient allies again show us their support as we have done for centuries. We will also be connected and stand beside each other! https://t.co/IO21p4xdex
"…serious concerns for the safety of Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters, considering previous arrests and reports that officers deployed in 2019 were approved to use lethal oversight during the execution of the injunction order."https://t.co/z92DAwM23D
Dozens of heavily armed RCMP officers arrived en masse on Wet'suwet'en territory today, breached @Gidimten checkpoints and have made at least 15 arrests of land defenders.
BC Pours Resources into RCMP Raid on Wet’suwet’en Territory during Provincial Climate Emergency: "Prioritizing fossil fuel expansion while British Columbians grapple with a climate emergency is an alarming, criminal and incredibly poor decision" https://t.co/qTT0nTTXNVpic.twitter.com/4dVKt55wtN
One worker stuck in camp behind a blockade line says CoastalGasLink didn't tell pipeline crews they had been evicted from the territory. "A lot said they would have left," they told. "No one actually told us" @TheTyeehttps://t.co/3W9rsbFIY1
“This is Sleydo over here on Cas Yih Yintah. The RCMP have moved in this morning on Gidimt’en Checkpoint. CGL is enforcing their own injunction order.
They started this morning on both ends of the blockade at 63 with a bunch of heavy machinery, chasing somebody with a dozer, they had rock trucks.
Currently right now the state of Gidimt’en Checkpoint is that dozers have rolled in (as well as) Heavy Machinery, CGL workers and RCMP. We just got word that they released K9 units at the bridge at Gidimt’en Checkpoint. Our warriors are down there. Our matriarch is there. There’s a lot of people that are there that are at risk of this police violence.
Last night, with police approaching #Wetsuweten territory and blocking access, land defenders gathered around the fire, singing songs, drumming, and gathering strength from what this movement has been and has become. #AllOutForWedzinKwapic.twitter.com/sJa67IYlJj
This is why we are here. To make sure that the children of all our nations will have something to pass on to their grandchildren. This land holds all of our laws and ceremonies, it's our most important relationship. pic.twitter.com/IfLqgDO8wV
11/17/2021 URGENT UPDATE – Dozens of RCMP have deployed onto Wet’suwet’en territory. A charter plane full of RCMP have landed at the Smithers airport, with between 30 and 50 officers equipped with camo duffel bags. Police loaded onto two buses and unmarked, rental pick-up trucks and headed out towards the yintah. An RCMP helicopter is reported to be heading to the area. Throughout today, helicopters have circled over our camps, conducting low, deliberate flights for surveillance. The road into our yintah remains blocked by RCMP at 28km, with hereditary chiefs, food, and medical supplies being turned away. In the middle of a climate emergency, as highways and roads are being washed away and entire communities are being flooded and evacuated, the Province has chosen to send busloads of police to criminalize Wet’suwet’en water protectors and to work as a mercenary force for oil and gas. We will not back down. We need all eyes on Wet’suwet’en Yintah. We need boots on the ground. We need solidarity actions throughout Canada. #ShutDownCanada #AllOutForWedzinKwa
UPDATE: RCMP denying medication for Wet'suwet'en elders
RCMP turned around a Wet'suwet'en woman carrying heart medication for a Wet'suwet'en Cas Yikh elder.
Wet’suwet’en land defenders and supporters say inaction from B.C. and Canada left them no choice but to enforce an eviction order against Coastal GasLink workers and deactivate road access to the project, a pair of measures that have prompted the provincial and federal governments to call for a peaceful resolution to the blockades.
“We were sending a clear message to the province, to Canada, and they weren’t acting on it — they weren’t hearing what we were saying — so we had to get a little bit louder,” Gidimt’en camp spokesperson Sleydo’ Molly Wickham told The Narwhal in an interview. “They’re destroying absolutely everything that is important to us in our territory. And they have been continuing to do work, despite the eviction order last year.”
The sole access route to Coastal GasLink project sites and work camps housing some 500 people was cut off after the company failed to act on an eviction order issued on Sunday. Tensions have been steadily escalating in Gidimt’en clan territory south of Houston, B.C., since September as the pipeline company began preparing to drill under the Wedzin Kwa (Morice) River.
The Wet’suwet’en eviction order isn’t new. It was first issued on Jan. 4, 2020, by the hereditary chiefs.
“Anuc ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law) is not a ‘belief’ or a ‘point of view,’ ” the chiefs wrote at the time. “It is a way of sustainably managing our territories and relations with one another and the world around us, and it has worked for millennia to keep our territories intact. Our law is central to our identity. The ongoing criminalization of our laws by Canada’s courts and industrial police is an attempt at genocide, an attempt to extinguish Wet’suwet’en identity itself.”
When Chief Dsta’hyl arrived on a Saturday morning in October, the big construction vehicles rumbled back and forth over the cold mud. He watched an excavator dig into the soil, its yellow, hydraulic arm moving against the green backdrop of forests that he has called home all his life.
The area that was being prepared for construction lies within the territory of the Wet’suwet’en, a First Nation in what is currently called British Columbia, Canada. As a supporting chief from the Likhts’amisyu clan, Dsta’hyl had been tasked with enforcing Wet’suwet’en law in the area.
The scene he was witnessing — construction crews preparing to build a pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory, without their consent — represented a blatant violation of those laws. And Dsta’hyl had seen enough. After warning the on-site construction managers that they were trespassing, he arrived the next day and approached a pair of orange-vested security subcontractors employed by TC Energy, the company building the fracked gas pipeline known as Coastal GasLink, or CGL. He notified them that he would be seizing one of their excavators and then stepped onto the hulking vehicle and disabled it by disconnecting its battery and other components. Though he planned to leave the vehicle in place, Dsta’hyl said he wanted to make a statement to the company, which the traditional leaders decided to evict from their territory last year.
Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, has released the following statement in relation to current events around the Coastal GasLink project:
“Yesterday’s blockades of the Morice River Forest Service Road have put at risk emergency access and the delivery of critical services to more than 500 Coastal GasLink workers, and the good faith commitments made between the Office of the Wet’suwet’en and the Province of B.C. to develop a new relationship based on respect.
“The B.C. government is calling on all those involved to de-escalate the current confrontation and move quickly to eliminate the blockades through peaceful means.
I try to do most of the writing on this blog, rather than sharing tweets and videos. But it is important for those on the frontlines to tell their stories themselves.
Some may wonder why I, a white male in the so-called United States, follows so closely and writes about the Wet’suwet’en. There are several reasons. My whole life I have worked to reduce fossil fuel use. Which has been frustrating because so few people in industrialized societies look beyond their own needs for fossil fuels for transportation, heating, cooking, and all the products made from fossil fuels, such as plastics, etc. Our capitalist economy focuses on these things, completely ignoring the draining of non-renewable fossil fuel supplies and the many damages to Mother Earth.
The situation with the Wet’suwet’en peoples is an example of the global nature of environmental devastation. And their Indigenous leadership is an example of the path we all need to embrace to protect Mother Earth for the sake of our children and future generations.
These are moral and spiritual problems for me, again for many reasons. It is not right for certain societies to demand their overconsumption of fossil fuels, while so many others have little access to fuel for heat and cooking. And when the environmental devastation from the overconsumption of fossil fuels disproportionally impacts those with the smallest carbon footprint. When the rights and practices of Indigenous peoples are ignored and attacked. When hundreds of activists are killed each year.
— Humans 4 Human Rights🌍🇵🇸🚨360°CRISIS☠️ (@4_humans) November 9, 2021
1/UPDATE – RCMP Are Blocking Food And Medical Supplies From Wet’suwet’en Homes The RCMP are openly violating the human rights of the Wet’suwet’en people again.
2/Today, the driver of a vehicle carrying food and medical supplies was blocked by an arbitrary illegal police exclusion zone and threatened with arrest. 3/There are multiple Wet’suwet’en home sites beyond the police road block and many permanent full time Wet’suwet’en residents on the territory, including elders, children, and chiefs. 4/Despite human rights complaints filed against previous RCMP exclusion zones and recent BC court decisions condemning the use of unlawful exclusion zones, the RCMP is again using this illegal tactic. There is clearly no accountability or capacity for learning. 5/It is a human rights violation and a war crime against Wet’suwet’en people. This is just mind blowing. Let your representatives know how you feel about the treatment of Indigenous peoples. 6/ Mike Farnworth PSSG.Minister@gov.bc.ca Phone: (250) 356-2178 Murray Rankin IRR.Minister@gov.bc.ca Phone: (250) 953-4844 Marc Miller Marc.Miller@parl.gc.ca Phone: (613) 995-6403
As floods/landslides linked to the climate crisis affect supply routes to communities across the province, RCMP in northern B.C. deliberately block food/medicine from reaching the Wet’suwet’en as they resist a climate-changing pipeline on their lands. #WetsuwetenStrong#bcpolipic.twitter.com/i6CbSnmLDV
In sharp contrast to the violence perpetrated by Canada under the banner of "defense," what we saw here was a defense centred on protecting people, land, water, and based on a deep respect for ancestors and future generations. #wetsuwetenstrong#AllOutForWedzinkwapic.twitter.com/JT6WQ2Hrll
Former Chief Economist warns investors to take seriously the recent call by @Gidimten Checkpoint of Wet’suwet’en Nation to divest from the Coastal GasLink pipeline
You never know what might happen when you join a struggle for justice. One day in January 2020, I saw this video, “Coastal Gaslink Evicted from Unist’ot’en Territory”. I was amazed! I had been working for years on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline resistance. But had not known about the Wet’suwet’en peoples in British Columbia and their efforts to protect the water and their beautiful lands from construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.
Not surprisingly there was little written about this in the mainstream media. Then, as now, the Wet’suwet’en asked supporters to share their stories on social media, which I did. My Quaker meeting wrote a statement about this and sent a letter to British Columbia Premier John Horgan, January 26, 2020. (below)
On February 7, 2020, several of us held a vigil in Des Moines, Iowa, to support the Wet’suwet’en. This vigil was life changing for me because that is where I met Ronnie James, an Indigenous organizer with many years of experience. I first learned of the concepts of Mutual Aid from Ronnie and to this day we work on Des Moines Mutual Aid projects. Mutual Aid and LANDBACK have become the focus of my study and writing. https://landbackfriends.com/
This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago when some of our Mutual Aid friends offered their support for the Wet’suwet’en. You probably notice using the same signs we used in 2020.
The reason for all this backstory is because Sunday the Wet’suwet’en enforced the eviction notice that was first given to Coastal Gaslink in the video above, in January, 2020. Following are stories of what has happened since. You can find updates on twitter at https://twitter.com/Gidimten
Yesterday, we took our land back.
With our Haudenosaunee allies, we enforced our ancient trespass laws and have permanently closed access to our territory. The Morice Forest Service Road has been destroyed and access to Coastal Gaslink is no longer possible. pic.twitter.com/TcM0pOi4j6
The Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation has told Coastal GasLink it will enforce the eviction of pipeline workers from its territories in central B.C.
The enforcement notice, issued at 5 a.m. PT Sunday, provided an eight-hour window for CGL workers to move out of the territory before the access road was blocked.
Jennifer Wickham, media co-ordinator for the Gidimt’en checkpoint, which monitors access to part of the territory, says the Morice River Forest Service Road is now impassible for all vehicles, including supply trucks. She says only a handful of CGL workers were seen leaving the area before the blockades went up along the access road Sunday afternoon.
On Sept. 25, members of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en and supporters established a camp on a CGL work site south of Houston, halting plans to drill under the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River). Wickham called the river “the major concern” right now. She says the enforcement notice is “the next step” in the actions taken to protect the Wet’suwet’en sacred headwaters, salmon spawning river, and source of clean drinking water.
This morning, we upheld our laws and issued a mandatory evacuation order for all pipeline workers trespassing on our territory. We are enforcing the eviction order from January 2020, where Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs representing all clans of our nation stood together and removed Coastal GasLink from our lands. We will never abandon our children to live in a world with no clean water. We uphold our ancestral responsibilities. We continue to protect our yintah and invite all of our supporters to join us on the ground or to take action where you stand.There will be no pipelines on Wet’suwet’en territory.
CGL was given 8 hours to evacuate their worksites and after asking for an extension of two hours to get their workers out safely, CGL chose to keep their workers in the territory. They blockaded the road with trucks and heavy machinery on a bridge near what is known as Camp 9A.
Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) meetinghouse is in the Iowa countryside. Many members have been involved in agriculture and care about protecting Mother Earth. A number of Friends have various relationships with Indigenous peoples. Some Friends have worked to protect water and to stop the construction of fossil fuel pipelines in the United States, such as the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
We are concerned about the tensions involving the Wet’suwet’en Peoples, who are working to protect their water and lands in British Columbia. Most recently they are working to prevent the construction of several pipelines through their territory. Such construction would do severe damage to the land, water, and living beings.
Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) Meeting, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) January 26, 2020
John Horgan. PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1. Email premier@gov.bc.ca
John Horgan,
We’re concerned that you are not honoring the tribal rights and unceded Wet’suwet’en territories and are threatening a raid instead.
We ask you to de-escalate the militarized police presence, meet with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, and hear their demands:
That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.
That the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and tribal rights to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
That the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s (CERD) request.
That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by Coastal GasLink (CGL) respect Wet’suwet’en laws and governance system, and refrain from using any force to access tribal lands or remove people.
Bear Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers) 19186 Bear Creek Road, Earlham, Iowa, 50072
The conflict in the Wet’suwet’en territories continues. The arrest of hereditary Chief Dsta’hyl and Kolin Sutherland-Wilson was a definite escalation. Both have since been released.
We talked about the Wet’suwet’en again this morning as we, Des Moines Mutual Aid, were working on our food project. Support of the Wet’suwet’en isn’t an official project of Des Moines Mutual Aid. But of interest to many of us. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago after we were done with the food giveaway.
Support for the Wet’suwet’en, Des Moines, Iowa, 10/16/2021
RCMP officers arrested two people on Wet’suwet’en territory Wednesday evening, including a hereditary chief who was held in jail overnight. Chief Dsta’hyl (Adam Gagnon) of the nation’s Likhts’amisyu Clan was released from the Houston RCMP detachment Thursday, according to B.C.’s prosecution service. Kolin Sutherland-Wilson from the Gitxsan Nation, who was taken into custody along with Dsta’hyl on Wednesday, was conditionally released the same day.
“It’s so insulting, and actually unbelievable, that they would arrest a hereditary name carrier and bring it to this level, for what — an industry?” said Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks, John Ridsdale, as he awaited details about the arrests Thursday.
I have been following the efforts of Kolin Sutherland-Wilson and his brother Denzel since January 2020 when he sat in front of the British Columbia Legislature for a week. I hadn’t known about the history of Gitxsan support of the Wet’suwet’en. https://jeffkisling.com/?s=kolin
The Gitxsan have a long history of supporting the Wet’suwet’en. The neighbouring nations worked together on the decade-long Delgamuukw and Gistay’wa court case, which ended with the Supreme Court of Canada confirming title to their respective territories in 1997.
Sutherland-Wilson was the first to begin supporting the Wet’suwet’en at the B.C. legislature in January 2020, a protest of one that steadily grew into a nationwide shut down of transportation and shipping routes.
UNCEDED LIKHTS’AMISYU TERRITORY – HOUSTON, BC – On October 27, Likhts’amisyu Hereditary Chief Dsta’hyl was arrested and forcibly removed from unceded Likhts’amisyu territory, along with Kolin Sutherland-Wilson of the Gitxsan Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit wilp. Sutherland-Wilson was released on October 27, and Dini ze’ Dsta’hyl was held overnight and released October 28. https://likhtsamisyu.com/2021/10/28/wetsuweten-chief-dstahyl-arrested-upholding-wetsuweten-law/
Arrest of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief ‘So Insulting’ | The Tyee
“As Wet’suwet’en, we’re not recognizing that injunction because we’re not a part of B.C., we’re not a part of Canada. That injunction is completely invalid on Wet’suwet’en territory.” https://t.co/ySXlcfLr34
Between 1870 and 1905 the Wet’suwet’en had 3 National meetings in the community of Hagwilget. The meetings were to discuss a possible War with the Whiteman who forced us off of our lands. Over 115 years later we are still left with few options #wetsuwetenstrong#likhtsamisyupic.twitter.com/QRV3DxBDFa
— Likhts’amisyu (Fireweed) Clan (@Likhtsamisyu) October 29, 2021
…. As far as Wet’suwet’en go, I guess we’ve fought this fight for a long time and we are not given up now. We never give up. I’m telling everybody out there to not give up hope on us because this battle is far from over. We are gonna continue this campaign that might not be here and it might not be me but you’re gonna see you know young officers and young Warriors rising up. They are silly that they didn’t just work with me. Yeah I’m a lot more passive than a lot of ones that may come. That’s what I’m saying. Dini Ze’Dsta’hyl Likhts’amisyu Clan
Likhtsamisyu supporters face police after Chief Dsta'hyl's Arrest
In the following video, Kolin Sutherland-Wilson speaks at his arrest yesterday. His message to us is to support the land protectors. “Because we are doing what we know is right, and we are following our truth.“
It is an honor to be here on behalf of the Gitxsan people in support of our brothers and sisters of the Wet’suwet’en people. And I stand here as a diplomatic prisoner of the Gitxsan nation of the Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit people and I stand fully behind the Likht’samisyu clan government and all those who stand up to support of the traditional laws of the land. Much love to all the people of the world. Thank you again for your support.
To all the people out there, I trust you to back up the people who are protecting the land, who are doing everything in their power to stand up to injustice. Because we are doing what we know is right, and we are following our truth. So as a member of the Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit, I ask that the Gitxsan people stand up to uphold our laws for the sake of peace, for the sake of the land.
Kolin Sutherland-Wilson
I trust you to back up the people who are protecting the land, who are doing everything in their power to stand up to injustice.
Some of my friends in Des Moines showing their support for the Wet’suwet’en on October 16, 2021.
In January, 2020, Bear Creek Friends (Quakers) approved the following statement in support of the Wet’suwet’en, and sent the letter below to John Horgan, British Columbia Premier.
Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) meetinghouse is in the Iowa countryside. Many members have been involved in agriculture and care about protecting Mother Earth. A number of Friends have various relationships with Indigenous peoples. Some Friends have worked to protect water and to stop the construction of fossil fuel pipelines in the United States, such as the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
We are concerned about the tensions involving the Wet’suwet’en Peoples, who are working to protect their water and lands in British Columbia. Most recently they are working to prevent the construction of several pipelines through their territory. Such construction would do severe damage to the land, water, and living beings.
Bear Creek Friends Meeting, of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) approved sending the following letter to British Columbia Premier, John Horgan.
John Horgan. PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1. Email premier@gov.bc.ca
John Horgan,
We’re concerned that you are not honoring the tribal rights and unceded Wet’suwet’en territories and are threatening a raid instead.
We ask you to de-escalate the militarized police presence, meet with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, and hear their demands:
That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.
That the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and tribal rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
That the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimiation’s (CERD) request.
That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by Coastal GasLink (CGL) respect Wet’suwet’en laws and governance system, and refrain from using any force to access tribal lands or remove people.
Bear Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers) 19186 Bear Creek Road, Earlham, Iowa, 50072
There have been many conflicts and arrests of Wet’suwet’en people by militarized Royal Canadian Mounted Police for years. There are heightened tensions now as construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline has reached the point of drilling under the sacred headwaters of the Wedzin Kwa river.
Yesterday Chief Dsta’hyl and Kolin Sutherland-Wilson were arrested and removed from the Wet’suwet’en land. At the end of this are information and videos about Kolin and his brother Denzel Sutherland-Wilson and their work to protect the Wet’suwet’en territories.
Chief Dsta'hyl of @Likhtsamisyu has been arrested & removed from his land, along with Kolin Sutherland-Wilson of the Gitxsan fireweed clan & at least one other person.
Cops were deployed from all over northern BC for this.
— Likhts’amisyu (Fireweed) Clan (@Likhtsamisyu) October 28, 2021
They refuse to discuss which laws they are willing to enforce… a SCC decision which recognizes our title and also gives the Wet’suwet’en a chance to sort out how our lands will be impacted. There is no attempt to deal with us directly from any of the corrupt parties. pic.twitter.com/yY9VRLUqhQ
— Likhts’amisyu (Fireweed) Clan (@Likhtsamisyu) October 28, 2021
URGENT UPDATE: Chief Dsta’hyl has been arrested while fulfilling his role as @Likhtsamisyu Enforcement Officer on their yintah. Supporters are being read the injunction.
Earlier in this series about #LANDBACK I wrote the first time I heard that term was from Denzel Sutherland-Wilson. I shared this awful video of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) pointing sniper rifles at him. Canada is ready to kill us
[ WARNING: This video contains graphic images of an armed threat on the lives of land defenders Denzel Sutherland-Wilson (Gitxsan) and Anne Spice (Tlingit). It may be traumatic for many to see. But we feel strongly that it should be available to witness. Denzel, Anne, and all the land defenders are now safe. These events took place during the RCMP raid on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory on February 7, 2020. The video was filmed by Gitxsan land defender Denzel Sutherland-Wilson from atop this tower. ]
At this same time his brother, Kolin Sutherland-Wilson, was bringing attention to these issues, including sitting outside the doors of the British Columbia legislature by himself for a week. His video on Colonialism in Canada is an excellent review of the subject and brings together many of the issues related to #LANDBACK.
The arrest of Chief Dsta’hyl occurred just a few hours ago. The only news are the following tweets and Facebook posts. Supporters are asked to do what they can now. “We need boots on the ground!”
URGENT UPDATE: Chief Dsta’hyl has been arrested while fulfilling his role as @Likhtsamisyu Enforcement Officer on their yintah. Supporters are being read the injunction.
There have been many conflicts and arrests of Wet’suwet’en people by militarized Royal Canadian Mounted Police. There are heightened tensions now as construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline has reached the point of drilling under the sacred headwaters of the Wedzin Kwa river. For background information see: https://landbackfriends.com/?s=wetsuweten
With @jjhorgan releasing the provincial Climate Plan today AND while our People file an appeal on our Climate Change court case – this is what we are up against. Fossil Fuels are not an answer to a #ClimateCrisis#WetsuwetenStrong#alloutforwidzinkwa
LANDBACK Friends 